The DEKA arm is part of a larger, $100 million Defense Department program aimed at improving prosthetics. By Olga Khazan

The Segway was supposed
to change everything
… until it became the preferred transportation of walking tours and shopping mall security. But now its inventor, Dean Kamen, is back with a new creation that might be slightly more revolutionary.

Enter the DEKA limb, the first FDA-approved robotic arm that’s powered by the wearer’s mind. Electrodes attached to the arm near the prosthesis detect muscle contraction, and those signals are then interpreted into specific movements by a computer, the
FDA announced on Friday
.

“The device is modular so that it can be fitted to people who’ve suffered any degree of limb loss, from an entire arm to a hand,”
Bloomberg Businessweek
reported.
“Six ‘grip patterns’ allow wearers to drink a cup of water, hold a cordless drill or pick up a credit card or a grape, among other functions.”

A Department of Veterans Affairs study of the DEKA arm
found that
90 percent of study participants were able to use locks and keys, zippers, and combs with the arm—all activities they hadn’t been able to do with their existing prosthetics.

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More than 1,500 Americans
have lost a leg or arm
in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The DEKA arm is part of a larger, $100 million Defense Department program aimed at improving prosthetics.

The arm’s creators
are calling it
“Luke” after the amputee
Star Wars
character, naturally.

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